Pad



Nov. 4, 1952 G. F.' MAGEE PAD Filed April 2l, 1950 INVENTOR ATTORNEY Patented Nov. 4, 1,952

PAD

Gilbert Francis Magee, New Brunswick, N. J., as-

signor to Johnson & Johnson, a corporation of New Jersey Application April 21, 1950, Serial No. 157,383

(Cl. 12S-296) 2 Claims.

This invention relates to Vfolded surgical dressings and related products and is concerned more particularly with `surgical dressings of the type that are used as eye pads.

Eye pads are surgical dressings used principally to protect the eye, to immobilize the eye lid, to form bases for application of medicaments to the eye, and to absorb discharges from the area of the orbital cavity. A satisfactory eye pad is preferably readily disposable, and soft, comfortable, absorbent, attractive in appearance, stable in form, useful for many purposes connected with treatment of the eye, foldable, adapted to wear at any angle relative to the position of the eye lid, conforming, and easy to apply by any convenient means of application, e. g. attached to a bandage or attached by adhesive tape or by means of a surgical adhesive.

Eye pads of the prior art were made usually of layers of woven materials or loose cotton providing generally loosely arranged laminates. In normal use, these products of the prior art could be disarranged readily and the cloth or cottorn contents of the pads would spill, giving the dressing and the wearer an unsightly appearance, varying the pressure against eye lid and eye ball and decreasing substantially the padding and protection that could be obtained by the use of the dressing. In one improvement over these eye pads a hinged cover was used. Even in this improved product the cotton or other filler was quite loose and accordingly much of the disadvantage of the other products referred to was still present.

It is an object of this invention to provide a new and improved eye dressing or similar product free of the disadvantages of the products of the prior art. It is a further object to provide such a dressing wherein the cushioning or ller material is held as securely as possible, and which may be worn with minimum inconvenience. It is a still further object of the invention to provide an eye dressing that is both economical and attractive in appearance and use.

While some of the objects have been stated, the other objects and the nature of the invention will be understood readily from the following description of the invention which provides an eye dressing or similar article wherein the covering is folded to enclose the top and the bottom of the filler or cushioning material and at least two marginal sides thereof, and wherein an adhesive seam is arranged so as to be spaced from two margins of the pad, where its hardness or bulkiness does not conflict with the comfort of and the novel features will be pointed out particularly in the appended claims. In the drawing, in which certain preferred embodiments of the invention are shown, and wherein similar numerals refer to similar parts throughout the several views shown:

Fig. l is a perspective view of an eye dressing or similar article in accordance with the invention;

Fig. 2 is an edge view of a similar eye dressing or similar article made in accordance with another preferred embodiment of the invention; and

Fig. 3 is a horizontal section through lines 3--3 of Fig. 1.

The dressing illustrated has the outline of a barrel and conforms essentially to the shape of the orbital cavity. It is composed of a flexible cover member I0 and a filler member Il. The cover member is preferably permeable and may be any soft and flexible fabric, but is preferably a layer of soft, nonwoven cloth formed by arranging any suitable textile bers (e. g. cotton or rayon) in a thin web and uniting or bonding them with adhesive (e. g. based on polyvinyl alcohol, polyvinyl acetate or other agglutinant polymers), usually at intervals, for instance, in accordance with Goldman Patent 2,039,312, issued May 5, 1936. This product has all the soft qualities of gauze but conforms more readily than gauze and shows none of the roughness present in some gauze threads.

The filler member is preferably absorbent and may be any desired ber or matted fiber such as cotton, cotton batting, alpha cellulose, rayon, or matted rayon. A layer of this material is placed upon the cover, and this cover is folded around the filler providing one soft, continuous cover face and two folded aps I3 and i4 of the cover member extend over the top of the filler material, providing some overlap. A small amount of adhesive l5 is applied linearly within the area of this overlap so as to secure the two cover flaps securely together. In a preferred embodiment of the invention illustrated in Fig. 2,

3 an excess of the adhesive is used so as to provide for penetration thereof into the filler members and to provide an adhesive connection I6 between ller and cover member.

The resulting pad permits none of the sidewise spillage of filler material that was observed in connection with products of the prior art. The filler H, particularly if partially interlocked prior to formation of the dressing, for instance, by matting, is held securely within the dressing, and shows little if any tendency to extend over the boundaries of the cover. The embodiment illustrated in Fig. 2 adds an even more secure positive lock between ller and cover member and results in a dressing vthat will hold its shape, even when subjected to rather careless use or to excessive manipulation by a consumer.

While two principal forms of the dressing embodying the improvements of the invention were shown, it will be understood that these were shown merely by Way of example and that various modifications and changes in the details thereof can be made without departing from the principle and spirit of the invention.

What I claim is:

1. An eye pad having four sides, the top and bottom sides being convex and the two end sides substantially straight, said pad being of size substantially coextensive with, so as to cover, the

orbital cavity and comprising a soft compressible ller and a flexible cover folded around the end sides of said ller and enclosing fully the top and bottom and two ends of said ller and presenting one continuous surface and two overlapping flaps, said flaps being secured to each other by an adhesive seam spaced from said ends and from the center of said eye pad, and an adhesive connection from said seam between said filler and said cover, whereby movement and disintegration of said filler is retarded.

2. An eye pad as set forth in claim 1 in which the exible cover is composed of non-Woven textile fiber cloth.

GILBERT FRANCIS MAGEE.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the le of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,169,490 Joseph Jan. 25, 1916 2,039,312 Goldman May 5, 1936 2,294,899 Fourness et al Sept. 8, 1942 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 542.869 Great Britain Jan. 29, 1942 

